Something Missing
by ShadowedPuppeteer
Summary: post-Journey's End  Wilfred wonders if Donna remembers the Doctor and the TARDIS, and whether she ever feels a hole where they used to be.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who. And it's a bloody good thing I don't. There is _no way_ I'd be able to make it as awesome as it is now!**

* * *

Donna hung up, snapping her phone closed as she rolled her eyes. Her mate Veera was banging on about 'the earth moving' and 'planets in the sky' and 'aliens! Real, live aliens!" Rubbish.

"Everything alright, Donna?"

Her mum was being weird, though. In twenty years - oh, alright, thirty - she'd never shown much concern for her only daughter, but the last three weeks she'd been asking her if she was okay every twenty minutes.

"Yeah. Veera was talking about those aliens again."

"Oh, I always told you she was no good. Drugs, no doubt. Aliens! Ha! It's one thing for your grandfather but..."

That was more like it.

Donna made herself a cup of tea and settled herself at the table to resign herself to her mum's natter and complaints. She'd just moved on to the mortgage when her granddad walked in. They met each other's gaze and Donna had to smile into her mug as her mum started on Wilf.

"And here he is! Useless, himself! Honestly, Dad, you're not that old, you can still get a part time job. Or at least sell that telescope of yours."

"I will never!"

Before they could start arguing (or rather, her grandfather would become subject to her mother's wrath), Donna drained the last of her tea and announced that she was going out. She dumped the empty cup by the sink and walked out on Sylvia's shouting.

"Where do you think you're going, _Madam_? You can't just leave your cup there! I didn't raise you in a barn..."

* * *

His breath frosted in front of him, floating above his eyes as he looked up sadly at the sky. Donna's friend had called again, trying to persuade her that aliens really existed. His heart broke as his naked eyes roamed the stars. Donna _should_ know that aliens existed - she should be out there, meeting them on new planets, travelling with that amazing man who had made her brilliant, made her the most important woman in the whole of creation!

But she barely even looked at the stars anymore.

"Permission to approach, sir!" Donna's voice echoed through the darkness in a mock salute.

Speak of the devil.

"Permission granted." Wilf made his voice smile. These past weeks had made him good at pretending.

Donna laughed and sat herself down on the tiny stool next to his.

"I brought you some more tea," she said, holding out a thermos. Wilf looked at her, puzzled. After the last time he'd been up the hill on a cold night, he always made sure to bring plenty of hot liquid. "I needed to get away from Mum," she added with a laugh.

"Oho! What'd she do now?"

Donna snorted. "My bedroom is 'too messy' for her liking."

Wilf chuckled. Those two were like dry willow sticks: rub each other for long enough and there was sure to be fire.

"Anything up there tonight?"

"Yes, come look, come look!" He stood (unfortunately, he was now too old to do much jumping) and moved Donna in front of the eyepiece. He pointed up at the sky. "See there? That star under Orion's belt? That's Rigel. It's very bright tonight."

Donna followed his finger and then lowered her eye to the telescope. When she found what Wilf was talking about, she let out a small, soft laugh.

"So it is."

Wilf watched her carefully. He wondered, sometimes, if she ever remembered the Doctor, his face, a blue box, even if it were just in her dreams.

"Sweetheart, do you ever think..."

"Hm?" Donna looked up. Wilf wanted to look away and take back what he'd started to say in a moment of weakness, but it was too late now. "Is there something wrong, Gramps?"

"No, no, it's nothing."

"Then what were you gonna say?" She frowned. "You're not actually thinking about selling the telescope are you?"

Wilf began to protest, but Donna plowed on.

"Don't you ever dare! You've had this thing for years. I won't let you, I swear -"

"Settle down, Donna, I'm not going to sell it."

"Then just tell me!" she exclaimed exasperatedly.

She moved back onto her stool so Wilf sat down. He reached out and took her hand.

"What's wrong, Granddad? You know you can tell me, right?"

_If only,_ he thought sadly as she squeezed his hand.

"I know, sweetheart." This time, Donna stayed silent until Wilf gathered the strength to speak. _This is a dangerous conversation, Wilfred Mott,_ he chided himself.

"Do you ever have the feeling that something's, well, missing?"

"How d'you mean?"

"In your heart, do you ever feel there's something should be there that isn't? Like a man..."

Donna barked a laugh. "A man! Yeah, I could do with one of those."

"Ah, only if he passes the test."

Donna rolled her eyes. Wild and Sylvia had devised a series of tests and questions for future blokes, after that scumbag Lance.

"I wouldn't mind Mum to back off a bit, either. I'm an adult now, she's gotta stop treating me like I'm still a teenager."

"It's just her way of showing she loves you, sweetheart."

"What are you doing all the way out here, then?"

Wilf shrugged and laughed as Donna quirked an eyebrow at him.

"You sure there's nothing missing?"

Donna rolled her eyes, and then grinned at him. "I'm sure, Gramps."

Wilf smiled. "That's good. I'm glad."

But Donna was bewildered to see tears glistening behind his eyes.

* * *

"Four lagers and a gin and tonic, ta," Donna called to the bartender. She and a few of her mates were out celebrating her new job and she was going to spend the first of her pay check on their first round.

Suddenly she was bumped forward, and her stomach collided with the edge of the bar.

"Oi, watch it!" she shouted, wheeling around with a fight rising in her throat - which quickly died and replaced with an urge to mock when she saw the bizarre-looking man in front of her. It looked like he'd bought all his clothes from a garage sale! No one wore tweed jackets anymore for gamy old professors, his haircut was straight out of the seventies, his chin was almost as big as her arse and as for that tie... "Get lost on the way to the circus, did ya?"

Well, he _had_ bumped into her.

The man looked aghast. He held out his arms and glanced between her and his ridiculously outdated and mismatched outfit. "Do you not like it? It's the braces, isn't it? No! Wait!" he interrupted himself before Donna even had the chance to incredulously exclaim "_Braces?_" "Doesn't matter. Not anymore or right now or ever, really." He draped his arm over her shoulder and turned her to face the direction he'd come from. "D'you see that man sitting right over there?" His voice had slowed to at least half the race it had been before. God, what a weirdo.

"What are you goin' on about?" she asked crossly.

"Look over there! See? Dark hair, dark skin, the most beautiful dark eyes you'll ever see."

Donna looked up at the man. What the hell was this guy on?

"Are you high or something?"

He laughed. "Not at all! I'm just naturally like this!

"But look, he's my mate, Shaun. Just thought I'd pop over and tell you that he has got quite a fancy for you."

Now she was interested. With only a mental threat of pain if the man was wrong, she searched out this Shaun.

And when she saw him, boy, did her stomach flip! When he looked at her and saw her staring, he hurriedly glanced away. Donna hoped he was blushing. That would just be too cute.

"Love, yer drinks!" The barman's shout brought her back to the bar. She turned to receive the tray and then turned back to talk to the strange man.

"What's your name, anyway...?"

But he wasn't there.

"Oi." She looked back at the barkeeper. "Dis is from dat bloke dat was just with yer." He handed her a small, square scrap of paper. She thanked him, sent the Shaun guy a coy glance, and then unnecessarily wiggled her hips as she made her way back to her mates.

She would never know that the strange man was watching her from an shadowed mouth of an alley across the street. He saw her expression grow bewildered as she read the note, an assurance the future would turn out well in terms any Earth girl would recognise ("And they lived happily ever after," written in his best script, of course); he saw that expression turn into a smile as she rejoined her friends in conversation; and most importantly, he saw her smile become flattered and flirtatious as Shaun finally made his approach and stuttered out a failed pick up line, which he knew Donna would find charming anyway.

"You ready to go, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked down to the red head - who was in absolutely no way replacing Donna, none - and forced some cheer back into his face.

"Yes. Let's go."

**

* * *

**

**Well? Did this make you feel happy? Sad? Excited (for the new series)? Let me know, please! I quite like it, if I do say so myself. :D**

**I got the basic idea while watching the episode _Turn Left_ of, well, the summary. Then it turned into this! Whoo! And yes, that _is_ an appearance of the 11th Doctor at the end. :) I thought that would be a nice touch... after all, Doctor 10 wouldn't want to run the risk of triggering Donna's memory, would he? So waiting until his next generation to introduce them... (While I'm here, what do you all think of Matt Smith so far? I reckon he's nowhere near as good as David Tennant, the sexiest nerd in the universe, but he's still pretty fantastic! And let's be honest, I doubt anyone would be able to fill DT's shoes.)**

**Thank you so much for reading! :D Please review - if you have an account I'll reply~ ;) hehe.**

**SP:)**


End file.
